warhammer40kfanonfandomcom-20200216-history
Warhammer 40k fanon:History
A brief history of the Warhammer 40k Fanon site. Foundation Era (2009-10) The community was much smaller, everybody knew each other and there was no sense of alienation. By all means it was a pretty decent time to be part of the wiki. Lither, NecrusIV and Tomj8937 are the last active users from this time. The Creation (2009) The creation of this wiki is pretty amusing, actually. The creator, Dark Seer, found that no wiki had yet been made for Warhammer 40k fanon. He immediately made one, and then finished his homework. Unfortunately for him however, he found that he had accidentally closed his browser page. After several failed attempts to guess the wiki's URL, he called in his real life friend Blade bane in to help him. Ethan spent several hours of searching wiki and the internet, but found that the wiki had disappeared. There was no time to continue searching however as, for both DS and BB, half yearly exams had begun. Once these exams were over, DS found it. Three days later, BB began construction on templates and his first article, Anguish IV. Several other articles were made, and for the time being it looked as if the wiki would just stay minor and unnoticed. The Merge (2009) A short while after this, Andrew was contacted by Vegas adict who wanted to discuss a merge into his 40k fanon wiki. Andrew discussed this with Ethan, and the two agreed that Ethan would try to find a diplomatic solution. Looking into the history of both wikis, Ethan found that his and Andrew's wiki had been created first. He stated this to Vegas adict, along with the compromise that should Vegas adict merge into this wiki; he would be made a Bureaucrat and have as much power as Ethan and Andrew. After roughly a week of talking this over with his other admin, Vegas agreed and the merge began. Roughly two days later the merge was complete and Vegas was made a bureaucrat. Additionally; Run4urLife! who had been helping with templates and such was promoted to Admin. The Role Play (2009) After a short period of time after the merge, the first Role Play on the site was created. This Role Play was known as the Fires of Heaven, and it was to become the biggest work on the site, having 68,648 Individual Characters! For the first collaborative project on the wiki, thats absolutely ridiculous. Meanwhile on the wiki websites, Alistar became the first featured article and this wiki gained it's 24th article. The Century Mark (2009) Roughly a month after these events transpired, the wiki received it's 100th article. This article came in the form of the numerous quote pages created by Jochannon. This boosted wiki communications and friendship, and formed a few more bonds between the users. The wiki admins also had to give out their first real block, to a user who lost his temper and made a personal attack on another user. People were having more fun, more articles were forming, and the article rate of the wiki had become roughly 4 per day. Things seem to be looking up. 200th (2010) We got to the 200th mark, failed to finish ANOTHER RP and started another one. Tango fever hit the wiki, Dark Seer Breaks out in stab wounds and Solbur has an urge to get kicked in the face. Age of Apathy (2010-11) The admin team of the era were practically never online, the site became increasingly cluttered with poorly written articles and minor vandalism was effectively ignored. The community was largely centred around Supahbadmarine and Khalael, who were prominently involved with helping new users with their writing. Dog of War, Imposter101 and OvaltinePatrol are among other active users from this time. 1,000th (2011) With our thousandth article, we reached another major milestone. In the time leading up to the 1000th article being reached (and afterwards), there was an influx of new members to the site. Some instantly proved to be competent community members. Loyalist Nine (2011) Around about the same time the 1000th article was created, a spate of vandalism occurred, largely attributed to Thegreatbeing. Initially operating as an unregistered contributor, this member seemed unable to comprehend the canon of the Warhmmer 40k Universe and latterly proved unable to understand how a wiki worked, no matter how many times people tried to educate him. As a result, this user would prove to be a long term nuisance who constantly ignored other members advice and created poorly written canon-hostile articles. The user's actions polarised the community against him, as they realised he was not prepared to listen. New Admins (2011) Thegreatbeing's threats, the general unresponsiveness of the current administrative staff, and the noticeable increase in the number of people (and articles) lead to most members becoming disillusioned with the current state of affairs. Following a vote amongst the community to vote for their own replacement admins, with many advocating to contact Wikia Staff directly, Dark Seer finally returned to pay heed to the website he'd forgotten about and promoted Supahbadmarine; Lither and Totalimmortal to the position of administrator. Supah was promoted because he was the most popular user amongst the community, having recieved the most votes in the informal election. Lither was promoted because DS was sure he'd already promoted him beforehand and the former had been one of the original contributors to the site back in 2009. Totalimmortal was promoted because, and I quote, "he made Dark Seer laugh" - despite being a complete unknown to the community. Age of Chat (2011-12) The enabling of the instant messaging feature changed the community dynamic significantly. No longer bound to waiting for responses on blog posts, talk pages and forums, collaboration on a small scale became much easier to organise. Solomus-BlackWing, OrkMarine and $17 are notable users who joined during this epoch of the wiki. Wiki Cleanup (2011) Thegreatbeing was swiftly dealt with by the new admins and the vandalism ceased. Totalimmortal enabled the chat feature and messed around with the wiki background, causing tensions with the more traditionally minded Lither. During this time, the wiki found itself with more content with even more users flooding in over the Christmas period. Chat allowed more collaborations to be developed with increased communications between all involved while the IRC Channel became a relic of a bygone era. Alternate Timelines were permitted and everyone seemed to be getting along. New Admin (2012) Cal XD was promoted to the rank of Administrator at the suggestion of Supah, in the aftermath of a spate of vandalism that disrupted the wiki for a couple of days. With four active admins, the wiki was in a relatively secure position with petty disputes resolved quickly and efficiently while all old NCF articles were finally deleted after sitting there for years. From time to time, tensions developed over a few small matters, but the wiki largely remained united by shared ideals and beliefs, with many future Featured Articles being written during this time. Of course, no community is without its fair share of drama and there were some challenges that needed to be faced. A new user seemed intent on recreating the same demolition of canon that Thegreatbeing had wrecked upon the Wiki only months earlier. With horrendous creations such as a man (forever to be known as Space Bombadil) raised by warp sharks, the "No More Empires", squats and, of course, the now mythical "Guevesa Obliterator" (a concept so fluff destroying that it has remained a deep seated memory within the site's culture years after the event took place). After failing to be cured of his canon reaving habits he eventually had all of his articles reduced to the category of NCF before they were all systematically deleted by the admins who were more than happy to oblige The Raid (2012) Eventually the wiki's penchant for poorly written articles and outright mary sues drew the ire of the /tg/ board. Surging the wiki with petty vandalism as part of a "raid", they were countered by the active admins (Cal and Supahbadmarine) with very little effort. Their threats to return when the bans expired proved to be empty ones. If anything, all the raid did was further cement the position of the admins as essential to the running of the site and make the community more grateful for their presence. Chat Mods (2012) The /tg/ raid shook some more than others and there was a call for Chat Moderators to be appointed to maintain the peace when the admins were not around. NecrusIV, DirgeOfCerberus111 and the ever amicable OvaltinePatrol were appointed to help deal with any resurgent trolls in chat. Friction between Lither and Totalimmortal reached their peak at this time, escalating into a series of petty bans on the other for percieved rules violations. Operation Grimdark (2012) Upon the bleached white backgrounds of the Warhammer 40k Wiki lay a totalitarian regime that had oppressed many comrades of the Fanon Wiki in the past. Well, that was the line peddled by Totalimmortal at the time. In fairness, several new members of the fanon complained to us that they had been banned for spurious reasons by the Lead Administrator of the wiki. In response, Total decided that antagonising our former sister wiki was the best response. So he, with the help of a team of reactionary subversives, launched the Grimdark Wiki to spite Montonius and bait a reaction out from him. As expected, the 40k Wiki users did not take kindly to the concept of all of their articles being migrated to another namespace and attempted to appeal to the Wikia Staff on the grounds of plagiarism. By Wikia's own CSS regulations, the actions of the Grimdark Wiki team were not inherently against the letter of the rules although the staff member involved did attempt to make an appeal to emotion over the spirit of the rules not really being followed. While the immediate reaction lead to some reforms being made, in hindsight the entire affair is likely one of the root causes of the souring of relations between the Canon Wiki and the Fanon Wiki in recent years. A House Divided (2012) At the suggestion of Supahbadmarine, a new form of social networking was devised in the form of User Factions as a means of promoting camaraderie in the midst of the hostilities that had been afflicting the wiki. It also aimed to create a sense of rivalry between different groups as they aligned themselves with the factions they supported within the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. As the mastermind of the whole project, the devout Tzeentchian lured many to his cause of the Thousand Editors and his grip upon the community increased tenfold. In response to the playful imperialism, the Warriors of the Holy Canon and the Ordo Ludificatio were formed to stand against the tide of the Great Deceiver. The Long Summer (2012) The summer was generally quite a dull time with not that much being achieved. Notably, with his schemes realised and his political rivals all but absent, Supah was able to devote all of his efforts towards his own personal projects. Activity upon the site reached a plateau as many members were on holiday or hiatus. Stagnation Era (2012-13) Cal XD, Lither and Total became noticeably less active in the affairs of the wiki until they were practically all but gone by the end of the year. As real life affairs prevented them from lurking as much as they had previously done and the needs of other wikis becokned, stewardship was largely left in the hands of the capable Supahbadmarine. The trio of absent admins resolved to only intervene in the most dire of situations. In this new age of editing, old customs were abandoned as the wiki shifted into a new community dynamic with a batch of new users now accepted into the fold. Great Purge (2013) As spring dawned, Cal returned to the Warhammer 40k Wiki by a new name, Khalael. Having been gone some time, he decided it was best to make up for it by deleting all the unused redirects and poor quality pages in the first of many purges to come. Outlines for an article quality policy were drawn up while Supahbadmarine pioneered an initiative to have the community agree upon what was and wasn't canon. User Faction Interregnum (2013) Amidst the discord left in the wake of the Great Purge, as people squabbled over the fate of articles, an irritating troublemaker began to gather support for an insurrection against the Administrators. At first it seemed harmless fun, with a few members electing to leave the Thousand Editors for the fresh pastures of the Kabal of The Dark Editors. Yet the treachery went far beyond the superficial rivalries of the user factions, for Ghost started to challenge the very authority of the Admins that ruled the 40k Fanon Wiki, pretending to be a girl and rallying an army of White Knights behind his imbecilic cause. In an attempt to disrupt the status quo, he tried to get one of his works crowned the Featured Article. I don't fully understand why this was a big deal, but apparently internet popularity contests are. Anyway, he basically chose the worst time to try this, since Cal and Total were both back from their holidays. With a genuine challenge to his position, Ghost tried to charm the admins to his cause with the same crap he had used to trick the White Knights to the side of the Kabal of The Dark Editors. Cal and Total bought none of it, calling him out on the bullshit. In response he threatened retaliation through vandalism, so far as to go seeking support from the other wikis in an attempt to win the popularity contest. Cal and Total did not care for this level of bullshit either, thus they resorted to counter fixing the vote in order to crown the Star Wolves as the Featured Article. Beaten at his own game, Ghost turned to manipulate his followers further in a bid to turn them against their former mentors and suggesting they made their own 40k Fanon site (it would latterly become known as Jimmies Hammer, although it was originally a completely serious breakaway wiki). Dark Seer Returns (2013) Fresh from the little spat that I decided to call the "Interregnum" because I was running out of descriptions for conflicts, calls were made for Dark Seer to return. Claims of admin abuse were rife amongst the followers of the now renamed Scourge of Hatred and he declared that he would only listen to the site's founder. Dark Seer was contacted, saw what was going on and immediately threatened to ban Ghost for trolling, reiterating that he appointed admins to handle this kind of stuff for him. The aftermath caused ripples that spread throughout the wiki, causing new factions to form in wake of the power vacuum that had resulted from all of the Admins coming to agree upon one thing. That they were basically exempt from conviction and could use their powers as they saw fit. Completely unjustified calls of oppression of the wiki members by the Administrator regime would lead to situation akin to turkeys voting for Christmas. as they demanded new admins to be appointed (likely hoping it'd be Ghost, because that's the herd mentality for you). Since wishing for more admins that could have the potential to abuse power is the logical solution to the problem. Oh wait. Age of Strife (2013-14) A new age dawned as Dark Seer promoted Solomus-BlackWing and DirgeOfCerberus111 to the rank of administrator, in order to appease the will of the people. With the ranks of the administrators bolstered, order was restored amongst the wiki and chaose vanquished in its stead. Internal strife returned to a more acceptable level as many other threats came to lurk in the shadows. Winter of Discontent (2013) The actions of a few members upon a now deleted blog caused tensions to skyrocket, which in turn sent shockwaves through space itself, catching the attention of one of the original Administrators - Run4urLife! - who then descended upon the realm he once visited often. The community rejoiced as such a veteran returned to them, and things seemed to continue to skyrocket upwards. But all was not well, as one user thought that he had been injusticely discriminated by the rest of the community, and soon sought to destroy it from the inside. This user's name was Bladiumdragon, and he began to tear at the sacred rules of the Fanon like a wolf trapped in a corner, before justice then struck him down like lightning. Star Lords and Wounded Egos (2014) The actions of Bladium found many users stride down the same, dark path as he. One such example was when the user Tardir thought that he had been mistreated by the admins that only sought to protect him. In a fit of rage, Tardir struck out at those that had once considered him a friend, and - with a heavy heart - these very users held council and eventually enacted justice. Sometime later, the Administrator Dirge soon came upon the old article of the Star Lords, which according to him did not follow the current rules of canon. A dispute arose between the community on what the fate of the Star Lords would be, and - after much bloodshed and tongue lashing - the article was finally deleted. Yet all was not well in the land of the Fanon, as DirgeofCerebus - one of the newly appointed administrators form the Bronze Age - had grown weary and disheartened from the petty conflict and decided to depart the wiki. So silently he left that the community feared that he would not return. One by one, users followed the administrators lead, and in the end even veterans wept puddles of their own tears at the sight of just how critical a blow had been struck across the Fanon's face. Sephadollion Sector (2014) With over half a decade behind the Land, the users moved forwards into what many hoped would become the next Golden Age. In this time, the Administrator Solomus-BlackWing created a new project to bring the community together, which was received with praise. Through the development of a sector to which all users could contribute, it was hoped that the community would achieve a greater sense of unity. Alas, discord was already in motion when the foundations of the Sephadollion Sector were laid down. The Fanon Spring (2014) The seeds of discontent were sown as Khalael changed the background of the wiki into that of the Soul Drinkers in a bid to appease the vote that had ended in a stalemate between Chaos and Space Marines. Thus, a compromise that satisfied none was reached. Some praised the new colour scheme for being refreshing and innovative while others decried it as an eyesore that made working upon the site unpleasant. Thus, tensions rose between the two camps over the fate of the background and call backs were made back to the time of the Great Total Background Change Conflict with many accosting the admin over the change, even when he was not involved. The discontent would rise further, for one black day, a new blog was created by Totalimmortal that proclaimed "I am your new lord and savior". The Administrators were shocked, and immediately went to see what had happened. Upon the page, Total's ego was laid bare for all to see. He claimed that he was the new bureaucrat chosen by Dark Seer, and that he was ready to govern the wiki into a new age. His claim was met with disbelief, and to prove his new powers, Total stripped DirgeofCerebus111 - one of the newly elected admins - of his power as a show of force. This affront to the sovereignty of the admins was met with cries of despair as they defenders of the wiki saw their brother unjustly stripped of his power. Supahbadmarine bid a token gesture of congratulations to the Totalimmortal before taking his leave with his loyal brothers in tow. A clandestine site tasked with running the wiki from the shadows was their destination, and a plan was drawn up to usurp the unworthy self-proclaimed ruler of the wiki they had once called home: Operation Beggar King. Within a matter of hours, the Admins recruited the majority of active users to their cause. A new wiki was formed that drew inspiration from a startegy the Totalimmortal himself had once pioneered against the Warhammer 40 Wiki only two years before. Thus, the Fanon Lodge was born as a direct challenge to Total's position of power. The masterminds behind the new wiki intended to import over everything from the 40k Fanon with the intent of making it a carbon copy. Yet, during the period of time reserved for bringing over the images, Totalimmortal did but find the promised land before it was complete. Upon a blog Totalimmortal did decree that "I'm pissed because you grimdarked when I haven't even done anything since I've become a bureaucrat." Supabadmarine was promoted to the position of Bureaucrat by Total as he lamented the betrayal he had suffered from those he had trusted most before retreating from the wiki to lick his wounds. Yet, the saga was not yet over. For Total still held on to power due to a supposed oversight he had made as he left. A few users that had been banned were brought back to the site as Supahbadmarine overturned their sentences and offered them amnesty for their crimes. However, tensions did not abate, as many suspected Total may return to unleash his wrath upon the users that had conspired against him. When the inevitable happened, Total defended his case and claimed he had honestly forgot. Of course, the admins doubted this heavily and the discourse in chat turned sour as Total stripped all present of their Administrator position. Khalael was banned from chat for decreeing that Total now truly was "The King of the Ashes" before he was unbanned by Total's former lieutenant, Solomus-BlackWing. For the great BlackWing had been granted bureaucrat by Totalimmortal as he claimed "Fuck it, Han's a bureau now", and he did value the counsel of his loyal servant, Khalael. A civil discussion was finally met as wise words soothed hot tempers. New Wiki Order (2014) The aftermath of the Fanon Spring saw many changes. Totalimmortal and Solomus-BlackWing stepped down from their bureaucrat positions. In turn, Supah spared Total of demotion for his choice to seek redemption, and thus welcomed him back into the fold. In the end, the wiki was saved, and the community could continue to march forward unto a new dawn. In time Total would be granted Bureaucrat yet again by Dark Seer, leading to a long summer of hostility only abated by periods of absence by the admins involved in the dispute. Tired of all the arguing, DirgeOfCerberus111 stepped down from his position of admin and quietly left the site for good, never to return again. NecrusIV was finally given recognition for his devoted service to the wiki and promoted to the rank of Administrator in lieu of efforts to revitalise the website and consolidate thematic templates into a more manageable format. The actions of a new user would see to it that a considerable effort was made to make Necrus's dreams a reality as categories were fixed while new article guidelines were suggested. Eventually, through a community discussion, it would be decided that Totalimmortal would be stripped of his power and demoted to the position of user on the third anniversary of the day he'd been given it. With Total gone, Remos was promoted to fill his vacant position, which was in no way at all influenced by the fact he'd been drinking with Khalael during the summer. Also Drakus Malicius had a tantrum over a quote left on his page that didn't take it seriously and left a charming farewell message to the admins he perceived as having wronged him. I felt that was a reasonable footnote at the end of this trying age. Lendanto Era (2014-15) Born from the dying embers of the Old Regime, the wiki rose again harder and stronger than before with a revatalised user base. T42's ban ended, providing the creative spark for a new wiki endeavour: the Podcast, helmed by NecrusIV, Khalael, OvaltinePatrol and "new user" OrkMarine. The series would continue infrequently for almost a year, before fizzling out due to Necrus being too lazy to get proper editing software again. During this time, Remos would begin his Great Image Purge, deleting thousands of unused images and categorizing the ones still in use. A Return To Normality (2014) Following on from the tumultuous summer, the wiki calmed, with people taking stuff a lot less seriously. There'd be the occasional wind up and piece of poorly written fanfiction, but it was a largely uneventful time. Pretty much anything of note that occured during this time ended up in the Podcast, otherwise, it wasn't particularly noteworthy. The Wiki Plays Politics (2015) For some reason the podcast crew thought it'd be amusing to hold full democratic elections for the next admin. OrkMarine was handily backed by the Lendanto Group, had campaign platforms other users didn't and was practically guaranteed to win in what was a sheer display of undiluted nepotism. Nobody was surprised when he won. The other admins were a little annoyed when he didn't do anything with the position he'd been given. Yet (Not) Another Admin (2015) With Ork basically doing nothing, Khalael and Remos, with the backing of Necrus, petitioned Supah to promote Imposter101, the site's token "harsh critic" and general abrasive commentator to the position of administrator. Since it was a majority decision, Supah went for it but did warn Imposter that he was on probation and gave the express instructions to "not ban anyone, unless they deserve it". I'm not saying Imposter's reputation preceded him, but it really did. Authors of poorly written articles would quickly learn the name Imposter101 as he sought to finish what Khalael had started three years previous. Great Purge 2: Deletion Boogaloo (2015) It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Imposter would quickly set to work on a great purge the likes of which had only been seen once before in wiki history. The aim was to reduce the wiki from 1800 articles to 1000 articles in order to make it more manageable and to sort the wheat from the chaff. With the aid of Necrus, Khalael, Remos and even OrkMarine, the wiki was culled significantly over the course of three months. A few users objected (and refused to do anything useful, like fix the issues on the marked articles), but most supported the move, citing that it'd bring up the general quality of the wiki's articles. Also T42 was featured in the Wiki Podcast because we thought it was a good idea at the time. The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (2015) We mourned the death of our beloved friend, Chat. It was so young. I mean I'll be honest, at this stage we were pulling on straws to try and find stuff to talk about in the podcasts. It's a lot harder when the wiki is running smoothly with almost no issues. Honestly, you try doing a podcast without any drama. We were running on fumes here. If you know what happened during this time, please feel free to let me know. I don't remember any of this. Age of Enlightenment (2015-16) Under the guidance of the new regime the wiki was slowly fixed and improved. Rebirth Era (2016-17) The longest uninterrupted period of prosperity in the wiki's history, with the largest user base the wiki had ever seen and the birth of the discord server. Age of Reckoning (2017-18) Faced with new challenges, tighter polices and fragile egos the wiki trundles on.